May 5 Final version from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

April 28 update from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

april 22 from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

Journal Question: what kind of a sound environment do you plan for your film? Realistic? More music-based? What will the role of sound be in your film?

From the start I wanted my short to feel more like a slice of life, therefore I didn't believe music was necessary because it's not supposed to be like an over-the-top like a Warner Brothers cartoon. I just wanted to give the cartoon a sort of ambience, make it a little more down-to-earth when it comes to atmosphere.

MFM april 14 from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

April 9 animation progress from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

April 2, 2013

• What is your biggest time management challenge, and what is your plan for dealing with it from here through the end of the semester?
• Which of your classmates’ films do you particularly like? Why? What is the strongest element of their piece? Where would you make suggestions?

Time management challenge... If there's any I can think of at the moment, it's when I feel burnt out on a particular project despite a deadline. For the most part I've been trying my best to get needed work done on time in addition to other classes or necessities. My best method right now is to take a break when I need one.

I think thus far I like Erica's film the most, the one with the inside and outside cats. I like the interaction between the two characters, her designs and animation so far are very lovely to look at, and the story and dilemma is very simple and enjoyable. The only thing I would suggest would be a little more consistency with the character designs, in that Bosley sometimes looks kind of scary or monstrous when she's supposed to be a domesticated cat, and the design of Lucifer, from what I have seen, seems a bit confusing in design in that in some shots he looks a little more cartoony than in the last one.
Otherwise I think Erica is doing a good job in that her animation has a beautiful, flowing look to it.

What were the three most important points you absorbed from the mid-semester crit?

Well, once again it was suggested to make Welles more menacing or threatening at first.

A good suggestion (which I actually took upon in one shot) was to cut to a reaction rather than focus on the lip sync the entire time. And while I still had to work on an additional shot, it did help to break up the scene a little.

Points that I did like were suggestions on how to make the film more cinematic or atmospheric, but once again, there's the matter of time and resources and there's only so much left I can do in only a month an a half.

Overall I was just glad to get feedback from additional perspectives. One person learned something new about film trivia, and another person was impressed with the ways I would deal with characters' heads at different angles.

March 25 animation progress from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

what’s the approach to working on this piece that’s worked the best for you so far?

• what elements do you find you need to put you in a comfortable and productive frame of mind for working:- at home with a hot cup of tea just before/after dinner?- working early in the morning for a couple of hours before anyone else is awake?- breaking up your six hours of out-of-class work time into smaller chunks, e.g. three times a week for two hours at a time? twice a week for three hours at a time?- mixing work with clearly defined breaks for exercise or other play time?


Approach?
Mainly getting work done when I have the time and I'm in the right frame of mind.

Elements required?
Home setting; whenever I'm in the right mood for drawing a lot and particularly on this project; no longer than two hours in one sitting, otherwise I burn out; usually in the afternoon or evenings.

shots1 and 7 inbetweens from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

Question: What has been the most challenging aspect of getting work done on this project thus far?
How are you addressing this challenge?

How about just trying to get the scheduled components done AND having to worry about the littlest details in the blog AND having to deal with other class assignments?

Addressing this challenge? How I always address this sort of thing: Just deal with it and get it done.

Shot3 and 4 inbetweens from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

Journal Question

Pick a piece and, making use of the vocabulary below, write a paragraph that articulates your sense of how successful or unsuccessful the piece was. We are not necessarily “judging” the piece, but making informed observations about it:

• evidence of strong structural elements (narrative or otherwise: sense of place and context in introduction, clarity of articulation of and viewer engagement with the introduction of the hero’s conflict, growing sense of tension as development events occur, clear and powerful articulation of climactic moment, satisfying conclusion)

• sophistication of movement design (sense of weight via speed changes, squash and stretch, secondary action; strong acting via silhouette, gesture, and key poses; grace and fluidity via arcs and secondary action)

• evidence of character thought process, motivation, and appeal

• strength of composition and staging (effective and informed use of closeups, medium, full, wide, and other shots; use of active negative/positive space, size relationships and overlapping of forms to orient the viewer towards important shot elements

• effective pacing that keeps the viewer engaged from beginning to end

• strength of design and color: line quality, character and object proportions, color palette that supports the story and establishes an appealing aesthetic

"Bruxism" by Aleson Ho

What stood out to me the most was the design and color in this one. The main character is stylized and visually appealing to a point where I like her in the first millisecond. There was also an appealing sense of texture in this one, and the painted background was good too; it brought to mind the more artistic animations of UPA studios.

The main character's actions were easy to follow due to good use of gesture and expression, or.

The woman's gestures could use a little more hesitation to get her actions or intended actions across better, but the squashing and stretching does help articulate her stress and frustration while inside the eyeball.

For the character's thought process it was helpful that there was a lot of expressive gestures and such, however they could have been a little more exaggerated because I didn't quite understand it on the first viewing. Though when the eyeball seemed to start devouring her painting and she tried to pull it off, I did get the idea that she wanted to protect her artwork.

I think I can say the same for the structural elements. I didn't quite understand what the giant Eyeball was about until the second half of the cartoon. When the harsh voices started to annoy the young woman I figured this cartoon was about the insecurities artists go through when receiving criticism. Rather appropriate for an art student.

Regarding the pacing I liked how the character held on the more expressive poses.

The composition and staging seemed appropriate for the story; getting the basic story across with long and medium shots and establishing details with the closeups.

Completed Key Frames and added a more visual prologue



Feb 16 Animatic from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

Feb 12 Animatic from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

February 12, 2013

Question:
1. How do you hope/want the audience to react/respond to your piece?

2. How do you want them to feel for the characters?
What kind of connection do you want them to feel?

3. What sort of audience reaction would leave you disappointed?
What would be the best response? Imagine a critical review of your piece that would make you feel that your piece was understood and that it was recognized as being a great piece, a festival winner-what would the review say?

Answer:
Well, that was a long question...

Ideally I'd just like the audience to laugh at the character interaction. Because it's based on such an obscure piece of movie trivia I don't expect a lot of people to get engaged in the framing narrative, and I'm okay with that. (I'm used to having to explain to people who Orson Welles and Roddy McDowall were.)
But the initial core of this cartoon is supposed to be the interaction between the two actors. How we see them interact as civilized adults and make peace avoiding inevitable confrontation, but then act like a couple schoolboys in hitting each other.

Responding to the characters? I've never thought that far ahead. It's not like it's a feature film where you have to keep the audience invested for a long time. At the very least I don't want the audience to hate them. I'd like them to enjoy the personalities brought out in the short.

What sort of reaction would leave me disappointed? How about if they didn't watch the cartoon at all. That would be just rude.
For me the best response would be good remarks on the gestures, expressions, the liveliness of the characters and the timing. That the audience can see a lot of life and personality in these characters even though we see them for such a short amount of time.

shot6 key poses from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

Feb5 updated animatic from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

February 5

Question: What is my relationship to the main character?

What experience inspired me to create him/her/it?

Answer:
In the case of Orson Welles, when I was studying at the Delaware College of Art and Design I took a film history class, and when we learned about Orson Welles and Citizen Kane, in a lot of ways I was awestruck. Not only did I learn why Kane was such a ground-breaking film, but I found Welles himself to be a fascinating person. I wrote a report on one of his films, and I made him the subject of an outlaw ballad, which I later illustrated for a pseudo-children's book.
I could elaborate more on that, but I don't have enough time at the moment...

As for Roddy McDowall, it was around the same time as I was learning about Welles. The first thing I remembered him for was he was the voice of the recurring villain Snowball in Pinky and the Brain. I learned that he was also in Laserblast and A Bug's Life, which was my favorite movie when I was nine years old. A little later I learned that he had been in film since he was a child, so out of curiosity I saw How Green Was My Valley, and while I couldn't explain why yet I was, once again, awestruck.
I think it's because nowadays it's practically a law of nature that former child stars should be dysfunctional as adults, whereas McDowall not only continued work as an actor, but also turned out to be a responsible, functional human being. In a world full of self-absorbed egomaniacs, I guess I found it wonderfully refreshing to see that some celebrities are capable of humility.

January 29

According to my calendar I was supposed to complete the key poses for Shots 1 and 2. I was also supposed to have actors cast for the two starring characters.

Unfortunately the latter is still up in the air, however I have gotten in contact with three actors from the school of performing arts and they seem interested. I haven't made my official decision on who should play who, nor have I set up an official recording date. I ought to get that done this weekend at the earliest because these guys have rehearsals coming up soon.

However I did get the initial key poses finished, despite how uppity the Flash program can be.

According to my calendar this week I should get the keys for Shots 3 and 4 done for next week. And I should decide on actors and get the voice recording done this weekend.

first image, from animatic